Via Foundation - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Via Foundation, Nadace Via, is a charitable foundation located in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

.

The Via Foundation provides small grants and expertise to non-profit community initiatives in the Czech Republic. Where 50 years of totalitarian government dampened people's initiative, the Via Foundation now supports peoples' efforts to improve their communities through a variety of programs and activities.

Mission

The Via Foundation supports and strengthens public participation in the development of a democratic society in the Czech Republic.

This includes:

Supporting the growth of nonprofit organizations.

Developing the culture of philanthropy
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...

in the Czech Republic.

Supporting the cooperation between non-profit organizations, local authorities, and local businesses.

History

In 1997, the Via Foundation was created as the indigenous successor to the Foundation for a Civil Society. Since then Via has supported over 1650 community projects in over 260 cities, towns and villages.

The name "Via" (Latin for "path") was chosen to evoke the image of a common path towards a vibrant, active, and democratic society.

Via Bona Award for Philanthropy

2007 marks the 10th year of the Via Foundation’s annual Via Bona Award for Philanthropy. The award acknowledges exemplary philanthropy of companies and individuals who have a history of strong support of the work of non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic.

The Via Bona awards are presented each September at a ceremony held at the residence of the United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic

United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic

Following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918 at the end of The Great War, the Bohemians, Moravians, and Slovaks united to form the new nation of Czechoslovakia...

in Prague

Prague

. The Via Bona Award is given to those who serve as an example to others through their material and financial support, as well as their willingness to tread untried paths. These donors move the Czech Republic ever closer to the renewal of a healthy tradition of giving and philanthropy.

The Via Bona Awards are made possible with the support of Citibank

Citibank

Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...

and the Citigroup Foundation and in partnership with the Foundation for a Civil Society.

_{* 2007 Via Bona Awards Press Release PDF}

_{* 2006 Via Bona Awards Press Release PDF}

_{* 2005 Via Bona Awards Press Release}

_{List of Past Via Bona AwardVia Bona Award
The Via Bona Awards for Philanthropy are annual awards presented by the Via Foundation to acknowledge exemplary philanthropy of companies and individuals who have a history of strong support of the work of non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic....

Winners}

Partnership with CEE Trust

The Trust for Civil Society in Central & Eastern Europe ("CEE Trust") was launched in January 2001 as an independent public charity organization with endowment support from a group of private grant-making foundations including Atlantic Philanthropies

Atlantic Philanthropies

The Atlantic Philanthropies is a private foundation created in 1982 by US businessman Charles F. "Chuck" Feeney. The Atlantic Philanthropies grant-making supports health and social projects in Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam...

, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is a charitable foundation founded in 1926 by Charles Stewart Mott of Flint, Michigan. Mott was the leading industrialist in Flint through his association with General Motors....

, the Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Open Society Institute

Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...

, the Pfizer Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund , , is an international philanthropic organisation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was set up in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle of the five famous Rockefeller brothers: John D...

.

In the period 2001-2005, the CEE Trust had three mutually reinforcing objectives:

To support legal, fiscal and political environments in which civil societies can flourish;
To strengthen the nonprofit sectors in the target countries through institutional capacity building; and
To support the long-term financial sustainability of nonprofit organizations.

The CEE Trust Board of Directors selected the Via Foundation as its regional partner and allocated US$ 3,000,000 to the program in the Czech Republic for a three-year period between 2002-2005.

TechSoup Česká republika

On December 12, 2010, the Via Foundation and Charter 77

Charter 77

Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was...

jointly launched partnership with the US-based nonprofit organization, TechSoup. The project aims to provide technology to qualified Czech nonprofit and civic organizations through the website www.techsoup.cz.

Video

External links

The Via Foundation in English
The Via Foundation's Facebook page
Nadace Via in Czech
Friends of Via Nadace Via - The Via Foundation's USA - based partner organization
Central and Eastern European Trust
Foundation for a Civil Society
http://www.idealist.org/if/idealist/en/SiteIndex/AssetSearch/search?assetTags=NON_PROFIT_TYPE&assetTypes=Org&countries=Czech%20Republic&fetchLimit=30&keywords=via&keywords=foundation&keywordsAsString=via%20foundation&languageDesignations=en&onlyFetchApproved=1&onlyFetchAssetProperties=1&siteClassifierName=idealist&sortOrderings=modificationDate&startIndex=0&validStatusTypes=APPROVED The Via Foundation] Idealist.org profile of the Via Foundation

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